Video credit: Newseum. All young Americans should study the life of crusading newspaper editor John Seigenthaler, who died Friday at age 86. It had more facets than the Hope Diamond; its lessons flash bright. Here are just four of them: His courage: As a young journalist, Seigenthaler climbed out on a bridge to save a suicidal man. When he worked for the Justice Department, he jumped into a racist mob to defend a Freedom Rider and was smashed over the head with a lead pipe. Later, as an editor in the South, he directed Nashville Tennessean exposes of the Ku Klux Klan and union boss Jimmy Hoffa. He fought forces in his own community to campaign for civil rights. His skills: The man could tell a story. He was eloquent, accurate, authentic. His television program, “A Word on Words,” always closed with the words “Keep reading.” When he protested, Wikipedia improved its editing rules. He changed the lives of countless young people, including a fledgling reporter who would become vice president, Al Gore.
